Changshuki (August and September of the 4th Year of the

Choshuki Diary (Transcribed by Fujiwara no Teika): A Heian Courtier's Journal in the Hand of Japan's Greatest Medieval Poet

Few documents in Japan combine the voices of two historical eras as intimately as this set of four handscrolls. The text is the personal diary of Minamoto no Moromitsu (1077–1136), a Heian aristocrat who served at the very court where the insei system—rule by retired emperors—was taking shape. The handwriting, however, is that of Fujiwara no Teika (1162–1241), the Kamakura-period poet who compiled the Shin-Kokin Wakashu and the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, and whose calligraphic style remains so recognizable that scholars still call it "Teika-yō" (the Teika manner) eight centuries later.

Held today by the Reizei-ke Shiguretei Bunko in Kyoto—a foundation established to safeguard the literary inheritance of Teika's direct descendants—these four scrolls were designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan on June 12, 1989. They are, in effect, a Heian court diary preserved through the brush of medieval Japan's greatest poet, and they remain one of the most evocative survivors of an age when Japanese aristocratic culture reached one of its richest peaks.

What Is the Choshuki?

The Choshuki (literally "Long Autumn Record") is the diary of Minamoto no Moromitsu, a courtier of the Murakami Genji line and the second son of Minamoto no Toshifusa, Minister of the Left. Moromitsu rose to the rank of Provisional Middle Counselor (Gon-Chūnagon) and Junior Third Rank, dying in 1136 at the age of sixty. The diary takes its name from his post as Provisional Master of the Empress's Household (Kōgōgū Gon-no-Daibu)—in classical Chinese parlance, the "Long Autumn Palace" (Chōshū-kyū). It is also known as the Gondaibu-ki, Moromitsu-ki, or Suiki.

Moromitsu was renowned for his deep knowledge of court ceremony and ritual (yūsoku kojitsu), and his diary is correspondingly rich in eyewitness detail about palace rites, religious observances, imperial pilgrimages, and aristocratic society. Although the original is believed to have once filled around seventy scrolls, only a fragment—roughly a dozen volumes covering the period from 1105 to 1136—survives today, scattered across several archival collections. This makes it one of the most essential primary sources for understanding the early insei period, when retired emperors Shirakawa and then Toba held the real reins of power behind the throne.

Why Fujiwara no Teika Copied It

The poet who transcribed these four scrolls, Fujiwara no Teika, is one of the most celebrated literary figures in Japanese history. Editor of two of the imperial poetry anthologies and curator of the foundational Hyakunin Isshu, he was equally devoted to preserving the prose records of earlier generations. His personal library at his Kyoto residence became, in effect, the seedbed of what survives today as classical Japanese literature.

Internal evidence points to Teika having brushed this manuscript when he was about sixty years old—around 1221. Letters addressed to him as "Minbu-kyō" (Minister of Popular Affairs) appear on the reverse side of the paper, since Teika, like many medieval scribes, recycled used documents by turning them over, cutting them in half, and writing the new text on the blank back. These hidden letters allow scholars to pinpoint the period of transcription with unusual precision and offer an extraordinary glimpse into Teika's private correspondence.

Each sheet of paper carries roughly thirty-five lines of text, with thirteen to nineteen characters per line and interlinear notes set in double columns. Marginal ink annotations appear here and there—small traces of a great mind reading carefully across the centuries.

What the Four Scrolls Contain

Each of the four scrolls captures a brief but historically charged window of court life. Together they read like dispatches from a single dramatic year and a half at the very moment the insei system was being established under Retired Emperor Toba.

Scroll One — Daiji 4 (1129), Eighth and Ninth Months

This volume opens with entries from the first day of the eighth month through portions of the ninth. It records the formal first outing (on-yuki-hajime) of Toba's fifth prince and describes in detail the Buddhist memorial rites held for the late Cloistered Emperor Shirakawa, who had died in the seventh month of 1129. Shirakawa's death was the political turning point that allowed Toba to begin his own period of cloistered rule, so Moromitsu's eyewitness account of the memorial liturgies has unusual historical weight.

Scroll Two — Tensho 1 (1131), First Month

Covering the twenty-seventh through twenty-ninth days of the first month, this scroll preserves an account of the era-change deliberations (kaigen-jō) when the calendar was officially changed from Daiji to Tensho. Such ceremonial precedents were guarded jealously by court ritual specialists, and Moromitsu's notes are the kind of practical record on which later generations of officials depended.

Scroll Three — Tensho 1 (1131), Second Month

The third through fifth days of the second month record one of the most evocative court events of the era: the Kumano purification rites (Kumano go-shōjin-hajime) undertaken by Retired Emperor Toba and Empress Taikenmon'in (Fujiwara no Shōshi/Tamako). The royal couple began their Kumano pilgrimage preparations at Toba-dono palace south of Kyoto on the third day; Taikenmon'in returned on the fourth, and Toba on the fifth. This portion of the diary was already known in another transmission line as the Ryōin Kumano Gokei-ki (Record of the Two Cloistered Sovereigns' Kumano Pilgrimage), but the Reizei manuscript preserves Teika's own careful version.

Scroll Four — Tensho 1 (1131), Third Month

The final scroll covers the twenty-second through twenty-fifth days of the third month and records a remarkable cultural event: a Shōshikai (literally "elder-tooth-respecting gathering") hosted by the powerful Major Counselor Fujiwara no Munetada. The Shōshikai, modeled on Chinese precedent, was a banquet honoring distinguished elderly courtiers and was considered one of the most refined cultural gatherings a noble could host.

Why It Was Designated an Important Cultural Property

The Agency for Cultural Affairs designated these four scrolls an Important Cultural Property in 1989 for a constellation of reasons that combine textual, calligraphic, and historical significance.

First, the Choshuki itself is a primary historical source of the highest rank. Without the diaries of Heian courtiers like Moromitsu, our understanding of the rituals, factional politics, and religious culture of the insei period would be drastically poorer. Each surviving fragment fills in a piece of the picture, and the Reizei manuscript preserves passages found nowhere else.

Second, the copyist is Fujiwara no Teika—arguably the most influential literary figure of medieval Japan. Old transcripts of the Choshuki are known from the Imperial Household Agency's Shoryōbu, the Higashiyama Goburiko collection, and the Tanaka manuscript (an Important Art Object). Among these, the Reizei version is uniquely valuable as a copy made by Teika's own brush. Teika's calligraphy is a cultural treasure in its own right; combined with the historical importance of the text, the result is a manuscript that doubles as both a literary heirloom and a primary source.

Third, the materials themselves are remarkable. The reverse-side documents (shihai monjo)—the recycled letters Teika wrote his new text upon—are themselves a window into early-thirteenth-century Kyoto correspondence, allowing scholars to read two layers of history at once.

Highlights for Visitors and Lovers of Japanese Culture

The Voice of the Heian Court, Live

The Choshuki's entries read with the immediacy of a working diary, not a polished historical narrative. We learn what time ceremonies began, who arrived late, which monks chanted, how many bushels of rice were distributed, and which courtier wore which color. These small, lived details bring the world of Heian Kyoto into focus more vividly than any later history book.

Teika's Calligraphy as Art

Fujiwara no Teika is admired not only for his poetry but for his distinctive handwriting, marked by deliberate, slightly idiosyncratic forms that became a model for later generations of literati. To see his brushwork carrying another courtier's words a century after the original was written is to witness Japanese literary culture transmitting itself across time.

Layered Paper, Layered History

The use of reused paper—letters addressed to Teika himself on the reverse—turns each scroll into a kind of palimpsest. Modern conservation has made it possible to read both sides, doubling the documentary value and offering a rare candid look at the private correspondence of one of Japan's greatest poets.

Visiting and Exploring the Neighborhood

The Choshuki scrolls are part of the Reizei family's library and, like most of the foundation's manuscript holdings, are not normally on public view. The Reizei-ke Shiguretei Bunko's mission is preservation, and even when the historic Reizei Residence itself opens for limited special viewings each spring and autumn, the literary documents stay safely inside the dedicated obunko archive vault. From time to time, however, exhibitions at major Japanese museums feature manuscripts from the collection, and watching the Reizei foundation's announcements is the best way to catch such opportunities.

Even when the documents are not on view, the Reizei Residence itself is well worth seeing. Located on Imadegawa-dōri in Kyoto's Kamigyō ward, the wooden compound is the only surviving aristocratic court-noble residence in Japan. Rebuilt in 1790 after the great Tenmei fire and designated an Important Cultural Property, it sits today—remarkably—inside the campus of Doshisha University, the historic kuge mansion and the modern academic city in quiet coexistence.

The neighborhood is rich in additional attractions. The Kyoto Imperial Palace and the wider Kyoto Gyoen national garden are a five-minute walk south. To the east, across the Kamogawa river, lies Shimogamo Shrine, a UNESCO World Heritage site set within an ancient primeval forest. A short subway ride further north reaches Kamigamo Shrine, also part of the World Heritage listing. Within a single day's gentle walk you can move from the literary heart of Heian aristocracy to the spiritual heart of ancient Kyoto.